GOD TURNS ASHES TO BEAUTY

 

 

Naomi going back home empty

Winston Churchill (1874- 1965) was a British statesman. He was a Nobel prize winning writer and historian, a prolific painter and one of the longest serving politician in British history. He is best remembered as perhaps the greatest prime minister in the history of Great Britain ministers. He was the prime minister during the Second World War. By the steel of his will, he led his island nation to stand against Hitler and eventually triumph.

But years before that victorious moment of the ages, Churchill found himself plunging through a succession of devastating trapdoors. In August 1929 Churchill had managed to bring in approximately $70 000 into the family coffers. That was an unimaginable amount of money for a single months work. He invested nearly all of it into the American stock market. He then jolted a note to his wife saying how pleased he was finally to reach a place of financial independence.

Less than ninety days later the stock market fell through its own trap door and Churchill lost virtually everything. It was a major blow, Churchill had experienced ninety days of financial security and then the bottom line fell out. For the first time in his adult life he had been on the street enjoying prospects of a comfortable future and then the trap door fell open beneath his feet and down he went. That set back alone would be enough to send most any man into the dungeon of depression but that was not all.

 In 1931 after serving his entire adult life as a central figure in the British government he was not invited to the cabinet. He had been banished into political wilderness. While Hitler was working full time to built his war machine, Churchill virtually the only British politician who saw the reality of Hitler’s threat  was banished to his country home where he wrote, painted and built brick walls to stay busy.(Phillip Harrelson 2004)

The Scriptures reveal to us the character of God. This makes their inspiration alive and keeps their fountains of consolation still open. In the book Ruth we have a glimpse into the domestic life of Israel. Here we learn that kindness, strong faith, patience and simple piety are all seen by God. They are shown to be pleasing to him and he rewards them in due time. In chapter 1 we read that Naomi and her family left Bethlehem and went to Moab because of famine.  

After some time her husband died. Her sons married Moabite women and they also all died. Elimelech was a wealthy man when he left Bethlehem for Moab but he lost it all (v.21). Though we may say that she got what she deserved, her story reveals to us that God is rich in grace and full of mercy. Whether or not Naomi spent time crying to the God of heaven for help we are not told. But what followed clearly shows that God had not given up on her; he had big plans that were about to unfold.

From distant Moab, Naomi heard that God was doing good things back in Israel. She could have stayed in Moab all of her life wishing things were different, but she decided to go back home to her people and her God. We don’t understand why God spared her and allowed the men to die, was it part of his plan?  Jesus told Peter “you do not understand now what I am doing but one day you will” (John 13:7). There are secrets that God has and will always have (Deut 29:29). We shall not understand all his ways “for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways (Isa. 55:8).

When Naomi set on the journey to return home her two daughters in law purposed to go with her. She implored them to go back to Moab (vv.8-9). She told them that she no longer had anything to offer because “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me” (v.13).  Oprah kissed her and returned but Ruth clung to her. So the two women went back to Bethlehem. The whole city was excited because of them. Naomi said to them “do not call me Naomi “pleasant”; call me Mara “bitter” because the Lord has made my life very bitter”.

Naomi used this to tell the people of Bethlehem that her time away from Israel and from the God of Israel had not been pleasant but bitter.  She did not pretend that everything was fine. She said “I went away full but the Lord has brought me back empty”. She would have gone another way further from God, instead she went back him. She knew that the answer is drawing closer to Him, not going further from Him. She trusted his sovereignty and knew that despite her calamities, He is a good and loving God who forgives.

Elimelech planned a short visit to Moab but it turned out to be 10 painful years. There is always the temptation to go and sojourn in the world. Whenever we leave God place and venture into the world, we always tell ourselves that it is only temporary but rarely is that the case. Once in the world we find excuse after excuse for staying in it. If you are truly one of Gods children he will arrange it so that you are so miserable you will come to your senses and return home.

Luke 15:11-32 records the story of a prodigal son who left her father’s house to find fun and adventure in the world. When he had lost everything and wound up in a place he never thought he would be, he decided to go home. What he found was a father ready to forgive, love and restore him to a place of perfect fellowship.  But it is only when the prodigal son hit rock bottom that he came back into his senses.

Jeremiah wrote ‘he has turned his hand against me again and again …he has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship…Even when I call out or cry for help he shuts out my prayers. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my path crooked… I have been deprived of peace, I have forgotten what prosperity is. …I remember my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

Yet this I call to mind. Because of the Lords great love we are not consumed and his compassion never failure. They are new every morning great is your faithfulness…The lord is good to those whose hope is in him…let him bury his face in the dust there may yet be hope… for no one is cast off by the Lord forever . Though he brings grief he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love...is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good things come…Let us return to the Lord.  Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven and say we have sinned and rebelled (Lam.3)

Naomi placed all her experiences under the arrangement of Gods sovereignty. Acceptance of God’s sovereignty is the place of rest in the believer’s life, it is the only way we can cope with the pains and uncertainties of life. Nothing in life is an accident, Gods hand is on each event. Many people react to challenges by turning away from God in bitterness. However, the challenges of life should cause us to cleave to Him more strongly like Job did (Job 1:13, 20-21).

When Naomi walked back home empty and hopeless she had no idea that one day she would hold a baby in her lap who would be the grandfather of King David and her daughter-in-law Ruth would end up in the line of the Messiah. We serve a God who can take the worst and turn it into the best. If today you are bitter with God because it seems that his very hand is against you return to Him. There is never reason for you to despair. 

If you are a child of God, regardless of how circumstances stand, God knows what he is doing even when you do not have a clue. Give him time to work! He "can bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes ,the oil of joy instead of  mourning  and a garment of praise instead of  a spirit of despair" (Isa. 61:3)